Jack Dorsey began programming while he was still at school

Dorsey began programming while attending Bishop DuBourg High School in St Louis. At age 15, Dorsey wrote dispatch software that is still used by some taxi companies, according to a biography on Dorsey.

Like many of his fellow tech billionaires, Dorsey never graduated university. He briefly attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology and transferred to New York University before calling it quits in 1999 one term before graduation to focus on his idea for Twitter, according to the biography.

Dorsey first had the idea for Twitter (now X) in 2000

In 2000, Dorsey built a simple prototype that let him update his friends on his life via BlackBerry and email messaging. Nobody else really seemed interested, so he put away the idea for a bit, according to a Stanford blog post.

He then got a job at a podcasting company called Odeo, where he met his future Twitter co-founders. Odeo went out of business in 2006, so Dorsey returned to his messaging idea, and Twitter was born.

On March 21, 2006, Dorsey posted the first tweet. Dorsey kept his Twitter handle simple, “@jack”. He hasn’t changed it since.

He paid himself just US$1.40 in salary in 2018

A year later, Dorsey was already less hands-on at Twitter, and by 2008, Williams had taken over as CEO, and Dorsey transitioned to chairman of Twitter’s board. Dorsey immediately got started on new projects. He invested in Foursquare and launched a payments start-up called Square that lets small-business owners accept credit card payments through a smartphone attachment.

Twitter went public in November 2013, and within hours Dorsey was a billionaire. In 2014 Forbes pegged Dorsey’s net worth at US$2.2 billion and it spiked as high as US$12.5 billion in 2021.

It was revealed in a 2019 filing that Dorsey earned just US$1.40 for his job as Twitter CEO the previous year. The US$1.40 salary actually represented a pay rise for Dorsey, who in previous years had refused any payment at all.

Dorsey stops eating on weekends

Dorsey’s eating habits have raised eyebrows over the years. In 2019, Dorsey appeared on a podcast hosted by Ben Greenfield, who previously said that vaccines caused autism. Dorsey said during his interview that he eats one meal a day and fasts all weekend. He said the first time he tried fasting it made him feel like he was hallucinating.

“It was a weird state to be in. But as I did it the next two times, it just became so apparent to me how much of our days are centred around meals and how – the experience I had was when I was fasting for much longer, how time really slowed down,” he said.

He originally wanted to become a fashion designer

In the early days of Twitter, Dorsey aspired to be a fashion designer.

According to CBS news Dorsey told co-founder Noah Glass he was going to “quit tech and become a fashion designer”, according to journalist Nick Bilton in his 2013 book, Hatching Twitter.

Dorsey loves and ice bath

When he’s not in Washington, Dorsey reportedly regularly hops in and out of ice baths and saunas. Dorsey said in the Tales of the Crypt podcast that he started using ice baths and saunas in the evenings around 2016. He will alternately sit in his barrel sauna for 15 minutes and then switch to an ice bath for three.

Dorsey’s dating life has sparked intrigue

In 2016, the singer Azealia Banks said she was sent clippings of Dorsey’s beard hair to fashion into a protective amulet. The controversial rapper posted on her now-deleted Twitter account that Dorsey sent her his hair “in an envelope”. Dorsey later told the Huffington Post that the incident never happened.

Then, in 2018, he was reported to be dating Sports Illustrated model Raven Lyn Corneil. US media reported in September 2018 that the pair were spotted together at the Harper’s Bazaar Icons party during New York Fashion Week. Dorsey’s exes also reportedly include actress Lily Cole and ballet dancer Sofiane Sylve.

He was planning to move to Africa before the pandemic hit

At the end of 2019, Dorsey said he would move to Africa for at least three months. Dorsey’s announcement followed a tour of Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa: “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!) Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for three to six months mid 2020,” he wrote on Twitter.

But then Dorsey came under threat of being ousted as Twitter CEO by activist investor Elliott Management. Both Bloomberg and CNBC reported in late February 2020 that major Twitter investor Elliott Management – led by Paul Singer – was seeking to replace Dorsey.

However, Dorsey managed to strike a truce and the platform announced on March 9, 2020 that it had reached a deal with Elliott Management which would leave him in place as CEO.

In 2021, Dorsey finally leaves Twitter

Twitter announced in 2021 that Dorsey had stepped down as CEO. CNBC was the first to report on Dorsey’s expected resignation, citing unnamed sources. Twitter confirmed the story the same day, announcing Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal would take over as CEO with immediate effect.

Dorsey posted on his Twitter account saying: “Not sure anyone has heard but, I resigned from Twitter.”

Dorsey launched a new social media company last year

In October 2022, as Musk was finalising his Twitter deal, Dorsey quietly launched a beta for his new social-media company, Bluesky Social. The company’s beta launch raked in 30,000 sign-ups in two days. According to Bluesky’s website, the company is intended to support “a new foundation for social networking which gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience”.

As of November 2023, the site currently has over two million users, according to Techcrunch.

He apologised to his Twitter colleagues for what happened with Elon Musk

“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” he continued on Twitter. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realise many are angry with me.”

He continued: “I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment … or ever … and I understand.”

Dorsey has openly criticised some of Elon Musk’s decisions

Despite initially supporting Musk’s takeover, Dorsey doesn’t always agree with all of the Tesla CEO’s decisions. Last year, Dorsey criticised Musk’s decision to rebrand the social media site’s Birdwatch feature to call it Community Notes, dubbing it the “most boring Facebook name ever”.

In April, the Twitter co-founder also openly criticised Musk’s leadership in a series of social media posts, writing that “it all went south” and Musk “should have walked away” from the acquisition. Though in July, Dorsey said “running Twitter is hard” after Musk sparked a backlash by announcing “rate limits” on viewing tweets.

“I don’t wish that stress upon anyone,” Dorsey tweeted. “I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense. It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar … which I’m guilty of … but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.”

Dorsey also urged “calm” when Musk rebranded Twitter to X in July.